Stellar OM Source Readies LP for RVNG, Shares Lead Single

Stellar OM Source, the South Holland-based synth explorer born Christelle Gualdi, has announced that her next record will arrive next month via adventurous NY label RVNG. While her previous kosmiche-inspired releases were largely marked more by dense beds of wafting analog tones than the skitter of a drum machine, Gualdi’s Joy One Mile LP seems to be achieving more of a balance between those sounds, as lead single “Elite Excel” indicates. The rest of Stellar OM Source’s album is also said to “depend upon a percussive propulsion” and “resemble early-era Warp Records” as well as “the wayward electro of early-’90s Detroit.” Joy One Mile will be released on June 11, and will be preceded by a 12″ for “Elite Excel,” which boasts a remix from Kassem Mosse, on May 14. The forthcoming album’s tracklist and artwork can be found below, along with a stream of “Elite Excel.”

01. Polarity
02. Par Amour
03. The Range
04. Trackers
05. Elite Excel
06. Fascination
07. Natives / Most Answers Never Unveiled

Deadboy Announces New Label, Previews First Release

Shadowy UK DJ/producer and lover of the macabre, Deadboy has announced the start of his own label and shared the details of its first release (artwork above). Called Total Fantasy, Deadboy’s new endeavors is said to “[aim] to bring music from the outer realms of the dancefloor,” and will do just that with the debut 12″ from an artist known only as BØNE SQUAD. BØNE SQUAD’s first release for Total Fantasy is self-titled, and will offer four cuts of what is described as “grime, hardcore, and bashment channeling the harsh aesthetics of black metal.” The record will be released sometime in the near future, but can be previewed in the SoundCloud player below, where the tracklist and a video teaser for BØNE SQUAD can also be found.

A1 – SKÅL & BØNES
A2 – VALKYRIE
B1 – VVINTER
B2 – DANSKHALL

Hi, Doctor Nick! – A Doctor’s Guide to Buying Your First Bits of Analog Gear

Nick Hook is here to help. More specifically, he’s here to answer our readers’ questions. Regardless of where he is in the world, regardless of the topic, regardless of what projects he’s working on, our resident advice columnist takes time out every week to field inquiries from people in search of his knowledge about music, DJing, production, travel, gear, and more. Got a question? Send it to [email protected]. As we’ve said, the good doctor is here to help.

Aiiiiiite. First off, I almost completely forgot to write this column, but our favorite superheroine Jubilee reminded me that we are working together to keep music journalism thriving.

Life in New York has still been super nuts with RBMA in town and all. Extreme love to all the folks in Term One. It’s a very talented bunch. I hosted Boiler Room yesterday and I don’t wanna set anyone apart, but I loved everyone’s set. Dam-Funk killed it as always and I was fortunate to hear four songs he did with _____ Dogg.

The Brian Eno lecture was amazing and incredibly inspiring. He focused a lot on surrender and control, which obviously relates to how we live and a lot of the things we do on an everyday basis, especially in terms of collaboration. I got shook when I was walking to my seat and some dude was like, “Yo, I love your column.” I think it still kinda terrifies me that people read this, but it’s amazing. So yeah. Thank you.

Okay. I could ramble forever, but let me get down to my real job… being a doctor.

Hi Doctor Nick,
From my understanding, you’re an analog enthusiast. I’ve been working almost entirely on my computer (save for a MIDI controller) for a few years now and I’m thinking about taking the plunge into analog. Not sure if I want a synth, a drum machine, a sampler, or an outside effects processor, but I definitely want something to add that warmth to my sound. Any recommendations on what I should pick up for a first piece of outboard gear? I’ve got maybe 1500 to spend.
Danny

You’re right. I love analog gear. That said, I’d like to preface all of this with the fact that I also really love plug-ins, digital items, and digital synthesizers. Still, owning pieces of analog gear is like having a relationship and there is something magical about the process of manipulating analog gear, wrestling with it, and using your hands and ears versus your eyes and a mouse.

Sooooooo… let me think. This is hard. Very hard, because there are many ways you can go with it. I’m going to give a lot of options here.

The right analog gear is like investing in the stock market, except it’s not gonna tank when some dude hacks the internet or the economy collapses. However, I do try to buy at market value or below, and always make sure to get it in working condition ASAP. Broken gear is the worst shit ever and it only frustrates you. This goes for most of the classics, older stuff that’s proven to last and continue to be somewhat desirable to people. The cool part is that if you do it right, you can a) keep it forever if you love it, b) in a couple of weeks decide you don’t like it (and know that for a fact) and sell it for the same price, or c) keep it for long enough that the value goes up and then you can sell it and make a few bucks, all while sampling the fuck out of it.

I haven’t been one to sell my stuff, but I have synths that I bought for 200 bucks that I see at stores going for $3K now. It’s pretty insane. Also, keep up on Craigslist. There’s always a broke hipster somewhere who needs to pay rent.

A great resource to study is Vintage Synth Explorer. I’ve spent mad hours on this. One day you might come up on something at a garage sale and roll out like a bandit.

I’m not sure of the best way to do this, but here are some things I highly recommend. Also, I gotta check prices—all this stuff has really gone up. Another thing—I gotta be careful cuz I don’t wanna blow up the prices. It’s kinda like when you find that ill hole-in-the-wall restaurant but then you tell all your friends and they raise the prices. That’s not fun. Whatever though, I do this for the people.

Keep in mind, this is all analog stuff. Trying to keep in mind your price range, I would recommend picking up a few cheap things to understand how they mix and match and keep your eyes out for deals. There’s a ton of new digital stuff that is exciting to me as well (Ableton Push, Maschine, Novation MiniNova, and so on). It’s an exciting time for gear right now.

OLD THINGS

Juno 106
It costs like 600 bucks. I love this synth. It’s polyphonic and very versatile. Even though it’s not the most expensive synth in my collection, I think i would keep it over a lot of others cuz it does do a lot and can work in many situations. There’s an awesome house square wave and good pads, which could work for new wave. It generally always works, stays in tune, and the MIDI implements well. I wish you could route audio through the filter cuz that’s important to me, but hey, you can’t have it all.

Guitar Pedals
Keep your eye out. Obviously the older the better with these, but you route your synth/hi-hat/kick/whatever through the right pedal and you are on to something. I love The RAT, the Ibanez Tube Screamer, Boss and Roland stuff, and flangers.

Ensoniq DP4
This one is pretty cheap. It has four ins and outs, and was allegedly used for many French house sounds. It’s tite.

NEW STUFF

The Ekdahl Moisturizer
This is a weirdo exposed spring reverb + preamp + filter + LFO. It’s very weird and awesome. The filter is fantastic—you can even flick the springs and pretend like you are on some King Tubby steeze. It’s really wonderful.

Korg MS-20
The new MS-20 is awesome. I can’t confirm or deny that I have one, but they killed it with this. You have to get over the fact that it has tiny keys, but it does have USB for MIDI and a MIDI in, so you can use your controller to play it.

Universal Audio LA-610
This was my first “pro” piece of outboard gear that I bought. It’s a preamp/compressor. It’s versatile cuz you can use it on anything and have a good signal coming in off your gear. If you have a vocalist come through, it has a tube so you get some nice real saturation. I still use it on every recording I make.

Korg Poly 800
Bok Bok blew mine out by plugging an alarm-clock plug into it, but this is analog, only digitally controlled. It’s really good, unique, and sounds like the early ’80s. There are good pads and chords, too.

Sequential Circuits Six-Trak
You can still get them cheap, and it’s an awesome entry into analog. It’s a little annoying to program, but sounds great.

Drum Machines
Keep your eyes open. Drum machines are fun cuz you can get weird cheap ones or randomly come up on a dope one. Mix and match them with your pedals and put them through a pedal and you are on to something. I love keeping my eyes out for stuff like this weird, forgotten, $20 device. Remember, when the 303 and all the original drum machines came out, everyone hated them cuz it wasn’t like a “real” drummer. Then some amazing cats from Chicago and Detroit started manipulating them and started some stuff we now all know and love.

Other Random Items
Look out for rackmount stuff. It’s not analog, but all the ’80s sounds have been on my mind lately. The Korg M1, all the Yamaha stuff you can get moderately cheap. An Oberheim Matrix 6.

Ahhhhh! I could go on forever. Maybe that’s it for now. Add your comment below…

Okay. I’m tired and this Brian Eno lecture just came on. I’m gonna watch and sleep.

Thanks y’allllll.

Hi, Doctor Nick! appears every Thursday on XLR8R. Do you have a question for Doctor Nick? Please submit your inquires to [email protected]. Nick Hook can help you.

[a]pendics.shuffle feat. Blakkat “Heavy Burdens High (Safeword Bonus Edit)”*Adjunct Audio*

On the latest EP from LA-based producer [a]pendics.shuffle, San Francisco duo Safeword was enlisted to remix the effort’s title track, “Heavy Burdens High”—which features another California artist in Blakkat. Safeword’s remix had the esteemed distinction of appearing early on in Maya Jane Coles’ most recent Essential Mix, and while this “Bonus Edit” is not that remix, it does share a lot of the same qualities. Essentially a dub of the pair’s original rework, the edit offered here delivers a deep house affair finished off with just the right touch of hi-fi sheen and imbued with a low-swung groove that keeps the track pleasantly rolling for its entire seven-minute run.

Heavy Burdens High (Safeword Bonus Edit)

Various Artists Eglo Records Vol. 1

Alexander Nut’s and Sam Shepard’s Eglo label is an enterprise that truly deserves to showcase itself on a compilation like Eglo Records Vol. 1—a collection which encourages listeners to feel the breadth and cohesion of the label’s aesthetic and discover the common thread which connects each affiliated artist. Across two discs, the musicians working with Eglo’s unique blend of organically ripe funk and machine-built dayglo shine, and common pool of influences—boogie, house, jazz, soul, and J Dilla-school hip-hop—are explored and organized in a way which gives a well-rounded impression of one of the most reliable labels to emerge in the last few years.

The collection opens with “Radiality,” the debut release from co-owner Shepard (a.k.a. Floating Points), as if to show us right from the start where this all began. “Vacuum Boogie” follows in majestic fashion, its treacle trudge and funky pounce sounding like it has barely aged. Floating Points’ wide-open starscapes of this kind—like on the scattered flourishes of “Marylin” and the bejewelled layers of velvet texture in “Myrtle Avenue”—dominate close to half of the tracklist, and with good reason.

At its most reckless, Vol. 1 is capable of standing up to the most percussive and raw dancefloor tracks; for example, see Floating Points’ ominous and rough-hewn “Shark Attack” and Funkineven‘s gritty reimagining of dark, bubbly acid on “Heart Pound” and “Roland’s Jam.” But there is also a brilliant inclusiveness at work, as the loud and muscular house experiments stand side by side with sparse, jazz-touched vocal tracks. “Innervisions,” a pained and captivating collaboration from Floating Points and Fatima, finds the singer in an unusually lonesome and wistful state amongst the producer’s synths.

If the meat of the “Eglo sound” is provided by the ample skill of Floating Points and, to a smaller degree, Funkineven, then Fatima is certainly its frontwoman. Her own discography covers even more territory than the label’s assorted output, and the command she has of her engaging voice and its subtle inflections reflects that history. She appears throughout Vol. 1 on tracks like “Kleer” and her own incredible “Soul Glo.” These collaborations with Funkineven sound like what a joint venture between Erykah Badu and Luke Vibert’s Kerrier District project might produce, but with more sass and effortlessness.

Cologne singer Shuanise, one of the label’s most promising new additions, plays second fiddle to Fatima on “Catch,” an itchy, techy tune by fellow German producer Hubert Daviz. Eglo’s fresh international slant is continued on the contributions from low-key LA hero Gifted & Blessed, who appears here as The Abstract Eye, and Belgian artist Arp 101, whose “Dead Leaf” shows just how rich and accessible Eglo’s style can be by allowing drum & bass stalwart Alix Perez to help explore the tune’s boogie-slow pace. Still, there is a velocity to tracks like “Flush” and “U,” though it doesn’t quite have the same intricate syncopation that characterizes the strongest, most unique material on Vol. 1.

Those already familiar with Eglo will be pleased to see that there are four previously unreleased tracks included at the end of the second disc. “Wires” is an epic number from Floating Points that goes further into serious jazz ideology than anything he or the label has released before. Shuanise’s “Mercy”—presumably produced by Shepard, too—is another triumph that shows there is plenty more music on the horizon from Eglo. Taken altogether, the label’s compendium is a great showcase of sounds that go beyond electronic music, or, really, any single niche. It presents the essence of Eglo within its woozy and wavy Afro-futurism, clear atmospheres, orchestrally detailed synth patterns, and tightly sprung rhythm sections, which jump between jazzy, man-made timings and digitally enhanced percussive strength. The sometimes elegant, often sweat-drenched, and inherently heartfelt energy spread across Vol. 1 defines Eglo as a proprietor of true soul music.

Rex the Dog feat. Jamie McDermott “Do You Feel What I Feel (Jacques Renault Vocal Remix)”*Southern Fried*

Understandably so, Jacques Renault (pictured above) appears to have had his remix talents in demand as of late—he shared a particularly heavenly remix of Chad Valley on our pages not so long ago—and so the Brooklyn-based producer/DJ was smartly enlisted to rework Rex the Dog‘s latest single for the Southern Fried label. Renault really lets the synths run wild on this one, setting an analog-born arp sequence off from the track’s opening moments and letting it unfurl in circular patterns atop understated percussion for the remix’s entire run. This rewardingly synth-filled rework is availible alongside others from Kim Ann Foxman, Tiger & Woods, and Riva Starr on Rex the Dog’s Do You Feel What I Feel EP, released earlier this week. A preview of that record can be heard after the jump.

Do You Feel What I Feel (Jacques Renault Vocal Remix)

Vedomir Marcel Dettmann Remixes

There was a time when the suggestion of Marcel Dettmann remixing Mikhaylo Vityk (better known as Vakula, or Vedomir) sounded about as a odd as, say, Surgeon remixing Theo Parrish, but here we are. As much as the ultra-prolific Ukrainian producer has made his name on disjointed, soul-sampling house, he has lately been making moderate strides into the straightforward techno arena. There’s hardly a better label to marry him with the Berghain mainstay than Amsterdam’s Dekmantel, which has an established reputation for diverse offerings. The two tracks on the outpost’s latest 12″ appeared in their original forms on Vedomir’s self-titled album from last year, and are subjected to Dettmann’s reliably deft touch this time around.

Dettmann’s reputation has long been that of a brutal, funkless sort of DJ/producer. When taking into account both of his new remixes—as well as the current wave of crusty, industrial techno—however, the notion begins to seem unfounded. These re-imaginings cut straight to the point, sure, but they do so with a great deal of precision. “Music Suprematism” works with a short list of elements. Its drums are limited to a sole steady kick, and apart from a stammering, wordless vocal, the only other main ingredient is a pervasive arpeggio. The line rises in and out of a refined, granulated static, and the track’s overarching vibe is far more ethereal than it is punishing.

Dettmann’s reworking of “Dreams” is a more vivid effort. Its slightly offbeat drums hint at Schaffel techno, while its deep compression and strangulated, reversed accoutrements might also warrant comparison to artists on labels like Werk Discs and Astro:Dynamics. Maybe that sounds a little more leftfield than the music actually is, as Dettmann’s trademark muscular push does remain intact underneath. But it’s his mix of propulsion and careful, subtle detailing that allows the track to succeed.

Trainwreck: Juan Maclean

As the Discogs page for “Juan Maclean” makes patently clear, there is the man Juan Maclean (born John Maclean), and then there is his band, The Juan Maclean. The project fuses robotic synth-pop with well-honed, genre-neutral dancefloor instincts, and has been marked by a host of collaborators. The most prominent of those is vocalist and keyboardist Nancy Whang, who anchors The Juan Maclean’s latest hooky single and nineteenth release for DFA, “You Are My Destiny.” This edition of Trainwreck finds Maclean out on his own, however. And though there is probably no great moral to this story, it does prove that the artist will go to violent lengths to ensure a quality party—even if it means paradoxically wrecking said party in the process.

Tim Sweeney and I were DJing together at a club in Atlanta, Georgia. It was one of those situations where it was a live venue, so the turntables were set up on the stage. We were both playing vinyl, and a guy in the audience [who was] really drunk, apparently, picked up a microphone stand that was lying around and started banging the table that the turntables were on with it. And in the middle of my mixing two records—I was in the middle of a mix—he actually made the record skip, so it just totally trainwrecked and destroyed the whole thing. I remember looking up, getting really mad, and yelling at him. And when I yelled at him, he laughed at me, and that’s when I was totally sent out of control, basically. Tim was standing there with me. I remember taking my headphones off and leaving the records playing totally out of sync at the same time—it just sounded terrible—and marching off the stage to go find the guy. When I got to the side of the stage, a kid came running up to me and said something like, “I know where that guy is, I’ll take you to him. He’s been fucking with people all night.”

And that’s when I really, in my head, was like, “Okay, that’s all the justification I need to go do whatever I’m gonna go do right now.” The kid took me to this guy. And I don’t know how much detail I need to go into, but I basically provoked him into a fight. He went down to the floor pretty quickly, but when he was down on the floor he reached up and grabbed my shirt—I think I was still hitting him at this point—and he ripped my shirt right off my back. This was like a full-on fight. I remember hearing girls just screaming and a big frenzy going on around us. At some point, the bouncers came over and separated us, and they actually threw him out. When it was all over, I was left standing there with no shirt on.

Basically, all that was left in the club were like 50 guys—I just remember there were no girls left at all. I remember thinking to myself, “I have to finish playing because I need to get paid.” I still [had] an hour left in my set, so I walked back up to the stage with no shirt on. I [was] being taunted by a bunch of guys out there. I definitely started playing much angrier, playing some Nitzer Ebb record, I can’t remember which song it was, and a bunch of techno. No one was dancing. It was just all these guys with their arms folded, and once in awhile, someone would be like, “Why don’t you come down here and fight me?!” It was me, Tim, [former The Juan Maclean drummer] Jerry Fuchs, and I think Tim’s cousin, who was in the Marines or some branch of the armed forces. In order to get out of there, I remember him [having] a whole strategy using words like “flanking”—like, “We’ll flank you when we walk out.” We really thought we were going to go outside and get in a big fight or something, but the police were out there and we got away. But then the next day it was [reported] on Pitchfork, and it was really embarrassing. XLR8R ran some headline that was like, “Juan Maclean Beats Down Drunken Fan.” (Ed. note: It was actually “Juan Maclean Decks Drunken Fan Onstage.”) My mother called me, and she was really upset. DFA—someone from the label was really upset. The only one who wasn’t upset was [label co-owner] James Murphy, who thought it was awesome. He was like, “We need to have more fighting in DJing.”

Midland and Dusky Remix Will Saul’s Close Project on Upcoming Single

Will Saul’s “dark-yet-idyllic-pop” project, Close, has revealed plans to release a new single for the track “My Way,” backed by remixes from Midland, Dusky, and Wolf + Lamb affiliate Tanner Ross. Following after Close’s debut LP, Getting Closer, drops via !K7 on June 11, the “My Way” single will see its release on June 24. While the tune’s accompanying remixes have not been shared yet, a stream of the Joe Dukie-featuring original track can be heard below.

Redshape Preps Mini-Album for Delsin

Three years after the release of the first Red Pack album, masked Berlin producer Redshape is set to release Red Pack II via Amsterdam’s Delsin imprint. The six-track record will be released digitally and as a double 12″ on June 3, and is said to offer up “hugely atmospheric and romantically industrial techno.” In the meantime, Red Pack II‘s tracklist is included below along with a preview of LP track “Daft Mode.” (via Resident Advisor)

01 Disco Marauder
02 Path (Dub)
03 The Source
04 Daft Mode

05 Bulp Head
06 Path (Original)

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